REPOST: Winter at the Pond

Does this look wintery enough? The "Kids' Fishing Pond" is one of my favorite spots. In this weather, it's only ice fishing, though!

I gravitate towards telephoto, so this day I took my 18-55mm lens out to "the pond" to see what I could see.

Critique always welcome.

Thanks,
Linnet

Looks wintery enough to me.
Your camera's metering chose an exposure that has turned the snow grey, though. I would try to brighten it up some with your image editor.

Using your camera's exposure compensation function to slightly overexpose images with lots of snow and then using the histogram in the field to ensure that the data is as far to the right as possible without gross overexposure can help correct this.

Good input by John for the exposure.

There is a lot of negative space in this image. It leaves me wondering what else was around the bull rushes. If the rushes are the subject, which one is the subject? Why not go in closer if nothing else was visible?

Just my $0.02.

It is good to see someone had time to get out shooting. Keep them coming.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll try a re-post with white snow :-).

Steve, there was some "blank" white ice behind the rushes, and a few humps and bumps in the foreground. I was trying to convey the foggy white isolation of winter--but if just seems like empty space, perhaps I didn't succeed at that. Cattails come in families - this was a "bunch". Altho granted, if it were just a family portrait, the portrait photographer would have likely gotten up close and personal

Thanks again for the critique, re-post won't be before tomorrow.

Good advice so far, and easy to fix. I think cropping some from the top, and going really high key with this would work too.

Linnet, I have been working on winter shapes- compositions too. I find that shooting snow under cloud is extremely difficult. The attached image is an example. I was trying for the shape of the yucca and the snowdrift leading to it. I think some sun would have made it a lot better. Also, on your image, my eye went to the bottom left and right and wanted to see where those shapes went, the ones cut off by the bottom of the frame. I agree with Paul about cropping the top, but I'd also like to see more of the bottom. Just my .02 worth.

I upped the exposure on this considerably. When I export to jpeg I see it still has a slightly gray cast. Maybe I have white balance/color management issues!

I also reversed some of the negative clarity, and increased blacks to give the cattails a little 'weight'. Also cropped it differently.

The thing that has me most aghast is the amount of time that has gone by since I first posted this!!

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Linnet